I Don't Let People Rent Space In My Head

I like to consider myself a hardcore gamer. As such, I make a sporting attempt to play each and every game that other serious gamers consider to be really good. I have a level 80 character in WoW in part because I felt like I needed that experience on my gaming resume, and I still believe that you aren't a hardcore PC gamer unless you've given WoW a serious chance... but I digress.

One of the games I've heard about for a long time, but haven't ever gotten around to playing was Psychonauts. When Steam had it on sale for $2 a couple weeks ago, I knew that I officially no longer had an excuse.

Whenever I start into such a highly lauded game, I find that I look at the game with an overly critical eye. I seem to take some sort of sadistic delight in disagreeing with the masses; however, as was the case with WoW (it really is the best MMO out there), I turned out to be a huge fan of Psychonauts.

If, like I was, you are unfamiliar with the game, I'll describe it briefly. You play as a ten-year-old boy who has run away from home to attend the Psychonauts summer training camp. The game is a console-style platformer in the vein of a Mario 64 or similar. While I've heard plenty of people say that the game plays just fine with a mouse and keyboard, within one minute of starting the game I was grabbing for my gamepad. I played the rest of the game with it and couldn't imagine doing it any other way.

Loved

• Uniqueness. I have never played anything like Psychonauts before. The game really is in a league all its own. While the actual game mechanics are nothing too original, the story/setting itself is totally unique. The thing about this game that really sets it apart is the excursions you make into the psyches of those you come in contact with. Each person is haunted by some sort of a demon: sorrow over the death of a loved one, anguish due to a failed relationship, and so forth. These demons all manifest themselves in very interesting ways. In one mind you find yourself squaring off with Napoleon Bonaparte in a "strategy" game. It's up to you to recruit the villagers you need for your militia and find the weapons and food they require. In yet another, you find yourself in a sort of neon, Mexican wrestling, bullfighting inspired world. Each mind was completely different from the previous and I found them all very entertaining.
  
  
• Powers. The other thing I was really impressed with is that they managed to come up with as many psychic powers as they did. While some of them had very little usefulness (Pyrokinesis), others (Levitation) were insanely useful. There was an even a power to see through the eyes of another (Clairvoyance), which, despite the fact that it was only really necessary in a single mind/world was constantly entertaining to use on people and see what they thought of you. My only complaint here is that I wish that they had found ways to make all the powers more continually useful, but it's a minor gripe at best.
  
  
• Humor. The spunky protagonist, Raz, was the source of never ending entertainment for me. Despite the fact that a large portion of the main characters were children, the game was definitely written for adults as the humor was quite mature. Some of the conversations in this game literally made me laugh out loud. One of the real highlights for me was when I fought Kochamara. The boss calls out each move right before he does it, and the first times he called out "Overly Intricate Combination" and "Hard to Avoid Area Attack" I ended up getting smacked around as my reflexes plummeted due to my laughter. The writing, story, and setting here are absolutely top notch and are definitely the reason the game is regarded as highly as it is.
  
  

Hated

• Bugginess. This was one of the buggiest games I've played in recent memory. On top of a single Blue Screen I got while playing, sound choppiness issues, and some very serious framerate issues, the game manifested an absolutely crippling graphics bug. It happened 3 or 4 times during the course of my playthrough. While playing, the graphics would suddenly alter. Raz would become completely silver and many of the textures in the world would fail to render, including the 2D graphics of the interface. That meant that I couldn't even save the game and restart. I did discover that if I changed "zones" even though the graphics were still messed up, I could see the menu and save. The challenge of trying to either navigate back to a zone change or find the bacon/salts in my invisible inventory to leave the mind I was in was very frustrating. I did manage to play through all of my annoyances though, but they were definitely there.
  
  
• Last gen. While this game was probably a lot better back when if first came out now, I found the graphics to be notably last gen. Even with all settings maxed, there were plenty of low quality textures and jagged edges. It wasn't enough to detract from enjoying the game, but it was enough to be noticeable. Along the same lines, the game didn't have any support for my Xbox 360 gamepad's trigger buttons which were required to have enough buttons to properly control the game. I ended up using a third party app to map the trigger buttons to keyboard keys. Again, this wasn't a huge issue, but definitely a mark against the game.
  
  

Psychonauts is a fun, thoroughly entertaining game. There really just isn't any game out there that's like it. Despite rather commonplace platforming mechanics, it manages to deliver something amazing. It really is a shame that the game sold so poorly; a proper "next gen" sequel would be excellent. It's also very unfortunate that the game falls into the "it was a great game, but..." category due to the crippling bugs that are still around.

My recommendation here is definitely to play it if you haven't. It's a very unique game and should be something every gamer should experience. Unfortunately, I don't think I'd recommend the PC version here (due to the bugs) unless you can get it for really cheap. If you've still got a PS2 or an Xbox lying around, you'd probably be better served to play it there.

Psychonauts truly is one of a kind.